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San Miguel County 

New iMexico 



A Princely Domain, Larger Than Many States 

Offering all Forms of Apriculture, Vast 

Minerai Wealth and a Perfect 

Climate 



HOMES FOR ALL WHO COME 




Coapiled under direction oi th« Commercial Qub <A Las Vrgas 
Edilr.) ' " ^ 'I r^lNG, Secretary 

PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION OF NEW MEXICO 

1908 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY 



NEW MEXICO 



Larger in area than many of the stales, 
offering all forms of Agriculture, vast 
Mineral Wealth and a Perfect Climate 

By authority New Mexico Bureau of Immigration, 
19 8 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY OFFERS TO THE HOME-SEEKER, 
THE INVESTOR, THE HEALTH - SEEKER 



A vast area of fertile farming lands and an 
abundant and dependable rainfall, guaran- 
teeing the success of farming without irri- 
gation 

An unequalled supply of water for irriga- 
tion where needed or desired 

Many thousands of acres of government 
lands open to homestead entry 

A great, undeveloped mineral bearing area 
offering alluring fields to the prospector and 
investor 

Adequate railroad facilities 



Abundant range for many thousands of 
cattle, horses, sheep and goats 

Centrally located markets which will con- 
sume or dispose of every pound of the pro- 
ducts of the land 

A climate without equal in the world for 
the alleviation of diseases of the throat and 
lungs, with adequate sanitaria, attractive 
health and pleasure resorts, and magnificent 
mountain scenery 

A fine educational system providing for 
the thorough education of every child 



HOMES FOR JLL WHO COME 



NEW MEXICO, during the past two years has enjoyed a growth in 
population, an increase in its cultivated area and a general develop 
merit unequalled by any previous ten-year period in its history. 
One of the results of this development has been a tremendous demand for 
informal ion, coming from every section of the United States. 

The object of this book is to furnish accurate and 
INTRODUCTION adequate information about one of the greatest of 
the twenty- five New Mexico counties; the land of 
San Miguel county having come into especial prominence through the prov- 
en success of farming without irrigation and the resulting influx of farmers 
and honn^seekers who have come from far and near and whose prosperity 
is encourag-ing hundreds of others to investigate. The information contain- 
ed in the following pages has been verv carefullv compiled under the direc- 
tion of the Commercial club of Las Vegas, the aim being to give to the read- 
er a fairiv complete, althousfh conser 'ativelv drawn picture of conditions as 
thev will be found upon visiting San Mieuel countv. The book has been 
published by the Bureau of Immie-ration of New Mexico, an official bodv 
comriosed of six members appointed everv second v^ar bv the Governor and 
confirmed bv the upper house of the lep-islature. The Bureau, Avhich em- 
ploves a serretarv. is charp"ed with the dutv of furnishing- accurate informa- 
tion about New Mexico to prospective homeseekers ; to encourap-e immigra- 
tion and to use its best eflf^orts for the develonment of the terntorv. The 
Board as now ron<;titiit^ed. is as follows- Prp^^idenf, Josf^nh W. Bi^l'^, Sil- 
ver Citv: Virp-PresicTpnt. C. E. Ma<;>n. Poswell; Treasurer. Totnri A. TTa^f^v. 
CarriroTo: H'^o. A. EVniino-, East Ea? Vpcas: A. M. Ed^AT^ards. Earrf^ino-- 
ton • "D. A. MarriTiprson. Albnnuprnue. Atnv rnfmber of the T^^^vp■^^^ a^mII be 
p-lad to fiirniqTi informpfion as to auv serl'ion of t^e terntor\r. l\Tr. Elerninor. 
the member from San Mio"uel countv and the e'ditor of this book is in i\ 
position to simnlv promntlv anv furth<^r information dpcired as to the countv. 
Eor information as to anv othe»*sprtion of Ne^'*' Mexico innuiries to re- 
ceive prompt attention should be addr'^'^'^'^d to 

H. B. HENTNG. Serr^tarv. 

TTie Bureau of Tmmi<yration, 

Albuquerque, N. M. 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY 

A Short Historical Sketch from the Time of Coronado's Visit to the Present 

Day. 



By WILL C. BARNES. 



"IE COUNTY of San Miguel while not 
the greatest in area of the counties of 
New Mexico, with its 5,000 square 
miles, is one of the largest of the 
larger counties as well as one of the 
oldest in point of early settlement. 

When the Territory was organized 
under the military rule of General 
Kearney at Santa Fe, on December 6, 
1847, San Miguel was one of the sev- 
en counties in New Mexico, organiz- 
ed and admitted tb representation in 
the first Territorial Legislature held 
on that date. The other counties were 
Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Santa Ana, Rio 
Arriba, Taos and Valencia. 

According to old maps, San Miguel 

County comprised pretty much all 

northeastern New Mexico, east of 

Taos, Bernalillo and Santa Fe Counties, and of which have since beexi 

created the counties of Mora, Colfax, Guadalupe and Quay. 

Its position on the .frontier of the line of Spanish settlements, facing as 
it did out upon the great plains country, where roamed the millions of buf- 
falo, and several tribes of hostile and ever watchful Indians made the line of 
settlements that pressed forward from the earlier settlements along the Rio 
Grande timid about pushing out into he great sea of prairies that lay to the 
east of Las Vegas, and for many years that city was a true frontier town be- 
yond which the line of settlers did not press very far. The advancing wave 




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SAN MIGUEL COUNTY 



of population from the east, however^ along the old Santa Fe Trail and the 
establishment of Fort Union to the east of Las Vegas gradually opened up the 
country and Las Vegas became the c<;nter of vast trade that made her at 
one time the most important business town along the line of the Santa Fe 
Trail. 

In looking back over the history of New Mexico, we find that when 
Coronado, with his band of adventurers came sweeping across the country, 
looking for the fabled riches of the "Gran Quivera," they left the village of 
Santa Fe, and started to the east across the roughest country in New Mexico. 
At a point on what is now known as the Pecos River in the western 
portion of San Miguel County they fot nd a large village of Pueblo Indians. 
At this pueblo, Castaneda, the hi.5torir.n of the expedition, says they found 
over 500 able-bodied warriors living m a well built pueblo or town in a fer- 
tile valley, and that this pueblo and it inhabitants ruled the country there- 
about. This was in April, 154T, and Castaneda calls it the city of Cicuic, or 
Cicuyc, and the river we now know a the Pecos was called the Ru de 
Cicuic. 

Here, then, we find the first settled point within the limits of the pres- 
ent county of San Miguel. The ?uebl) long since has passed away, the In- 
dians who lived there are practically extinct, and all that is left to the sight- 
seer is the ruin of what is known ab the "Old Pecos Church," a huge adobe 
affair, in a sad state of repair, which is doubtless 300 or more years old. 
This ruin of the Pecos Church can be easily seen from the car window as 
the Santa Fe train toils up the heavy grade toward the town of Glorieta and 
is a point of interest to all sight-seers. 

Probably the earliest settlement mjde by the Spaniards in the present 
county limits was at the historic old t>wn of San Miguel, which lies on 
down the Pecos River, some thirty miles and can be seen to the south of the 
Santa Fe track as you cross the Pecos River at the little station of Rivera. 
It was from this little town of San Mis^uel that the hardy spirits who made 
the first settlements at Las Vegas ventured forth. 

On the 1 8th of February, 1820, a decree was issued from the author- 
ties of the Province of New Mexico granting a tract of land to certain par- 
ties named, at a place called "Vegas Grandes" on the Gallinas River in tlie 
county of El Bado. This grant was confirmed in May, 1821, by the Prov- 
incial Deputation of Durango, to which New Mexico then belonged. In 
1835 this grant was formally parceled out among the settlers and the town 
appears then for the first time under the name of "Neustra Senora de los Do- 
lores de Las Vegas" or "Our Lady ci Sorrows of the Meadows." 




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S^An MIGUEL. COUNTY. 7 

From this time on Las Vegas and the county of San Miguel occupy a 
promintnt place on the map ot JSiew Mexico. 

in the early correspondence ana grants of land it is called sometimes 
the county oi "Hi h-ddo (ihe Ford; or "ban Miguel del iiado ' (^M. 
ivxiciiaci ui tne i^oiaj, Out with the Aiiierican occupation tlie name Jil Bado 
seems to have Deen uropped and ilie recuius snow it was cailea in 104? sim- 
piy CDaii Miguel (^ounty. : 

ihe iNavajo Indians from the west, the Utes from the north, and the 
Comanciies noin tne soutn and cast raiacd tne settlers, steanng their siitcp 
anu otner livq stock and icnimg tne setucrs wiierevcr tney couid. iae settle- 
ments were mostly inside a strong adoue wail or lort into wnicn, in tiaies ot 
Ganger irom tne Indians, not oiiiy tne settiers, but all of their loui-iuoted 
posaessions Were ncraed togetiier iiibiue tne waas until tne aaiigei was past. 

in 1641 an expedition was iitted out in :3an /intonio, Te^^as, ^y Uic men 
1 exas xvepuuiic uiiuer ueiierai Mci-eod wniui was cadca the xic^unig j::-Ape- 
uiuuii, uut wiiicn reauy was an armed invasion 01 a loreign country, iex- 
as at tiictL time, ciauiicd ah oi the counuy east ot tne i\.io Uraiide, biu 
Mexico nad never acKiiowiedged tne c-iaiias and tins expedition was tor the 
purpose 01 capturing ;:3anta i'e, and taKing lun possession of the country east 
01 tne river. 

ihe expedition was lost for sevcAal months in the great staked plains. 
sulfered incrediole hardships and hnaiiy tound themselves near the town ot 
ban Miguel wnere they were met by (governor Armijo with a military force 
irom banta Fe, who .took the whole command prisoners, shot a few 01 them, 
and took the balance as prisoners of war to Cnihuaiiua where, atter a long 
time, they were finally returned to Texas. 

Thus San Miguel County saw the end of Texas' claim to the great strip 
of coui^try now known as N^w Mexico and Colorado lying east of the Rio 
Grande. , _ . _ _ _ ____..-. ■ 

On August 14th, 1846, Col. Stephen W. Kearney with his army of oc- 
cupation arrived at Las Vegas, and Lieutenant Emery in his narrative of the 
march says that only a few days before Kearney's arrival, the Navajos and 
Utes raided the town and drove off a large number of stock and forced all ot 
the people to retreat inside of the square about which the town was built. On 
August 15, Kearney climbed to the mud roof of one of the houses facing the 
plaza or square, and there, in the presence of all of the inhabitants and their 
officials, formally announced his occupaton of the country in the name of 
the United States, and, backed up by his army, he forced all of the officials 
to take the oath of allegiance to the new government. 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 9 

Thus it was that at Las Vegas and in San Miguel County, N. M., for 
tlie first time was formally taken possession of by the United States troops 
and ceased to be a province of Mexico from that hour. 

At Las Vegas, Colonel Kearney was overtaken by couriers from Bent's 
Fort near where the town of La Junt.'i now stands, and which was his mili- 
tary base, with his full commission as a Brigadier General of the United 
States Army. From Las Vegas, Kearney marched through the towns ol: 
Tecolote, Bernal, and San Miguel, at each place stopping to make the official.^ 
and leading men take the oath of allegiance. 

From the dat^ of Kearney's visit San Miguel County has had a s1e?dy 
s^rowth. In March. i870, the first newspaper in the county was published 
at Las Vegas. In the latter part of 1870 the Las Vegas "Mail" was first 
published, which paper in later years was merged into the "Las Vegas Ga- 
zette." 

Earlv in Time. 18*70. the Sant^ F? railroad reached the east^ern borders 
of f-hp coiintv. and on T"1v Tst, t870, was finished into I>as Vegas. In 
Aiio-nst. t87o, the firsf bank was onened in Las Ve^-as and San Miguel 
ronntv. It WPS the Fir<;t National Bank. Jefferson Raynolds, president, and 
Georee I. Dinkel, cashier. 

In October, 1870. the first Episcopal Church in New Mexico was 
erected, and the Rev. Henrv Forester installed as rector. 

On Tnlv 7th. t88o. General LT. S Grant, with Mrs. Grant and partv 
1,-p,-^ criven p public ref'prttion and ban/met Pt Las Veo'as. 

T)prPTrihpr 20th. t88o. the T>as Veo-as Stre'^t C^r Cnmnqriv was incor- 
norptpd pnri r^r^ were running by August TSt. t88t. this being the first street 
i^^r lino in thp Territorv. 

T^iq. in bripf. is a rono-h outline of the historv of S^n Mioiiel CountV. 
Qinrp Coronpdo s^t foot within its limi>s in tc/it down to the nrespnt dav. ^ 
neViod of ovtr ^60 venrs, durlncr whicti time three flags have waved over her 
—first the Spanish flag, then the Mexican banner, and finally, since 1846, the 
stars and stripes, while for a few day^ in March, 1862, the flag of the Con- 
federacy hovered close to its western boundary where the battle of Glorieta 
or Pigeon's Ranch was fought between the Federal and Rebel troops. 



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ACCORDING to the census of 1900 San Miguel County had at that 
time a population of 22,053. A conservative estimate, formed 
from election returns, school census and other reliable sources 
shows that on January i, 1908, there were more than 32,000 people in the 
county. At the present rate of increase the population of 1900 will have been 

more than doubled when the census of 
Population, Wealth, County 19 10 is taken. 

Government, Etc, The area of the county is about 5,- 

000 square miles. 

The county government is well administered and is now constituted as 
follows : 

County Commissioners — Atanacio Roybal, chairman; Benigno Martinez 
and John S. Clark. 

Sheriff — Cleofes Romero. 

Treasurer and Collector — Eugenio Romero. 

Assessor — M. A. Sanchez. ''■ 

Probate Clerk — A. A. Sena. • 

Probate Tudee — J. G. Alarcon. 

School SuD°rintetident — Porfirio Gallep"OS. 

The countv seat is La<? Veeas. a rep-nlarlv incorporated town lying on 
the wP'Jt side of the Rio Gallinas. whi^e East Las Ve<ras, an incorporated 
citv. lies on the east side of that stream. Both towns have full civil admin- 
istrptinn-?. fire d-^partments. well graded streets, cement sidewalks, fine elec- 
tric lieht and water service and an electric street car system covering the 
two towns that is without equal in th * southwest. 

The ?)s<?essed valuation of San Mip"ue1 countv is a little more than four 
million dollars, placinq- it first in the h'sti of New Mexico counties, based 
vv\nr\ the as'^P'^'^ment return of the present vear which shows a verv sati'^f'ic- 
torv increas'^ in valuation in all classes of prop'^rtv. especiallv in afrricultura) 
Innds and citv propertv- When it is kept in mind that assessment is iiiade 
iinon the basis of one-l-hird of the actual valuation of all classes of propertv,, 
the rnte of taxation in the county is not excessive. 

One dailv nnd four weekly new'^nnpers are pubh'shed in the county, all 
in T as Veeas and East Las Vecras. The Dailv Optic, one of the pioneer 
ppw<;par)ers of the southwest, has the neAA^s service of the Associated Press, 
while the weekly newspapers, the Weekly Optic, El Independiente, La Voz 
del Pueblo and La Revista Catolica, the three latter being published in the 
Spanish language, are among the leading weekly journals of New Mexico. 




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The Location and Climate of San Miguel County 



With an Article Discussing Its Especial Advantages in the Treatment of 

Pulmonary Tuberculosis 

ALONG the western boundary of San Miguel county extends the tower- 
ing chain of the southern Rockies. To the north are the Turkey 
mountains, leaving the county spread out on a beautiful plain open- 
ing out on and sloping to the southeast. It is a location which guarantees 
a clniiate at once equable and healthful, while the altitude which is from 
6,000 to 7, 000 feet, makes certain an annual rainfall far beyond the ordin- 
ary needs of the farmer. A long series of years show an average annual 
rain fall of 18.25 inches while for the years 1905, 1906 and 1907 the aver* 
age has been better than 23 inches, a rain fall which makes farming withoui 
irrigation absolutely certain of success while not affecting in any degree the 
value of this superb climate from a healthy standpoint. 

The following article, winch lias been wmeiy copied in the medical 
journals ol the country, gives a tnurougniy aucqudLC odLiiac of the value of 
this climate from the. viewpoint of an actual pracLitioaer and authority upon 
tuberculosis and diseases of the throat and lungs : 

(The article is an abstract of an address delivered before the Interna- 
tional American Congress of Tuberculosis held in New York, November 14- 
17, 1906, by Col. Francis, T. B. Fest, M. D., of Las Vegas, New Mexico). 

Without disputing the economic importance of home institutions for the 
treatment of tuberculosis of such patients who either cannot change climat'^ 

or for whom the mountain climate is contra-iri- 

The Mountain Climate dicated, and without denying the fact that in 

of New Mexico. many instances the disease may be arrested 

under home treatment, we cannot overloo'': 
the great lesson taught by the experience of many years, which has proven 
by indisputable statistics that a higher percentage of cures of this dreadful 
disease is produced by a prolonged stay in the higher altitudes. 

Altitude and climate must be separated. While some of the effects of 
altitude are the same everywhere, e. g., diarthermancy and chemic and physi- 
ologic influences of solar and ultra rays, the secondary effects, like polycythe- 
mia, followed by hematopoietic and tissue changes, with consequent proto- 




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SAN MIGUEL COUNTY 15 

plasmic regeneration, are more marked in different climates, depending upon 
the mean humidity and temperature. Furthermore, the mdex of air-pressure 
is different in a humid and arid chmate. Naturally the contrasts of winter 
and summer must vary accordingly. 

Comparing the Alps with tiie Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Mexico 
and Isiew Mexico, the lavoraole verdict will fail to the last-named Territory, 
because it exceeas tlie otners in lessened contrasts oi season, wniie tiie index 
cf humidity is tne most even during tiie year. 

iSlew Mexico has been erroneously reicrred to as a wild country or 
mountainous aesert. i rue, it has not tne large cities of the Alps and Colo 
/ado, yet m scenery it stands second to none. i,c lias not tiie iiistoiicai moa- 
umeiiLS oi Europe, wiiere nistury is old, uut it maiies up Dy one mucli more 
tnruiing witn monuments ot an age bygone and lorgotteii. ilie desolated 
towns and rums of tne ir'ueblos, witn tueir ancient pottery and sculpture^ 
speak lor a relatively iiign ci.viiuatioii at a tnne wnen tne ancestors ot VVil- 
liani icii still lived m tne '"I'lauiuauten oi tiie iiodensee." 

Against tne awe inspiring giaciers with occasional cold storage moun- 
tain cinnoers, i\ew Mexico oilers semi-arid stretcnes wiiere the bones of tlie 
victims OI tiiirst lie bieacmng under a cloudless sKy; vaiieys for winch there 
can be but one designation, viz., gardens, and lorsts as balmy as the Jbamous 
Black Forest, in piace ot tne juut:inde :>enHerM we have the shouts of tiie 
daring cowboys and tne redslcins with iiis auorigmal customs. 

'ihe winters in J\evv Mexico are milder tnaii in the Alps and Colorado, 
while in tlie northern parts tne suminers are cooler, thus offering a more even 
temperature the whole year round. This is especially true of the Eastern 
slope, which forms a horseshoe from the Katoii pass to the Glorieta pass, at 
an elevation of 6,000 to 6,500 feet. 

In the southern part of New Mexico we also have evenness of tempera- 
ture and low humidity, the latter to such extent that we call that section arid, 
thus offering the combined therapeutic effect of altitude and desert. 

These facts lessen the usual objections or contraindications to altitude, 
because the gravity of the rarified atmosphere is such as to prove of benefit 
even to tiie patient with extensive lesions. The benefit is further enlianccd 
by the hematopoietic processes of cellular regeneration, which is increased by 
greater water abstraction, while the heat abstraction is diminished to such 
a degree that even enfeebled individuals, who could not be benefited in the 
Alps, or m the northern Rocky Mountains, and who are ordinarily sent to 
Egypt or Arizona may have their lives prolonged in New Mexico without 
suffering the consequences of the debtlitating heat. Contro-indications of the 
altitudes of New Mexico are practically only two. First, such cases in which 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 17 

the chest exr)en<;iori. dii^ to fibrosis or extensive cavitntiori is rp<^nrpr1 to such 
a minimum th^t the avni^qhl'^ fnnrfionin'r qr*^^ rnnnot sprn^"'* <iuf^^i'^r\f snnn^v 
of oxyo'cn from the nir: second, ■wh'^r'^ th^rp pvist^; sn-^h an insn'^'i^i'^nt nn^- 
mo'iarv cirml^tior) fViif- t^p in^r^^psed M'^orV o^ t^f^* hmo-q ^A'^011M o'^^'^rromp an'' 

-, r p'<.'01^i■^~<)• or niioTti'^''>ti''T^ npr'vTMK; rlisf-iirKniT^pc; es-n'^rii1'!\r r1'i'"'''"i'r th<^ n^non 
r.f arrlim.qti/ntion. Yet ihe benefits of this rHatively dry altitude by for 
overbnlaiT^e the slight inconvenience of nervonsness. 

The health resorts of New Me^-ico are not very nnmerons; the United 
States g-Qvcrnment owns two -one at Fort Stanton for the piibhc healt.i 
ser^f re, and one at Fort Bavard for the armv. On the eastern slope men- 

fio^^rl nbo^'e. bet"<A'epn the Paton and r^loriofn n^cQPc; ^t nn oUifudp of 
n^'^iif- ^ oon fppt. the srenprv is esn^^piallv attrartive and tbprp are 
a niitnher of small towns, nf which thp b'^st knonm at*'^ Raton and Watrons. 
x.-i'fb T ns Veo-ns renresen.tinof a small citv. T quote from a renort from the 
scct-etarv of war to the house of renresent'^itives in too?: "A.t the altitude of 
T r^c T/'pWpc f^fi' r>ir contains only about o^e-half as murh moisture as that at 
sea-line, and even t}here it averas^es for the year less than one-half the moi«?- 
tjre it can contain (mean rdative humidity being about 45 and as low as 20 
ac times). The rainfall is about 18.25 inches a year. Hvo-thirds ocnirring i»* 
ihe iive rvarmest months. Rain in winter is practicallv unknown, all precipi- 
tation beine as snow. The average of the total precipitation in the three win- 
ter months during ten years, at a point near this town, was i.oq inches of 
vitpr. all as snoAv. These statements show a drv winter and snring. Novetn- 
bpr is also vprv drv. the p-reatest rainfall T^eino- at the season when \v<ct 
can most easilv be tolerated bv invalids. The percentage of sunshine is hi<?-Ji. 
an average for three years showing 280 clear days, 60 partly cloudy or fair 
(Invs and only 25 cloudy days, the chief cloudiness of the year occurring in 
July and August. (In California the greatest rainfall and cloudiness occur 
in mid-wmter.) 

"In the colder winters at this altitude (6,500 feet) the thermometer will 
go below zero occasionally. In the hottest summer it may reach 90 degrees, 
rarely higher. The summers are very delightful, the air being dry except 
just during the afternoon or night showers, and the nights always cool 
enough for blankets. The heat of the day is chiefly from 1 1 a. m. to 4 p. m., 
and one step from the sun into the shade brings coolness at once. * * * * 

One interesting fact is the in frequency with which the great transcon- 
tinental storms cross New Mexico; indeed, any severe storms are very rare; 
tornadoes are utterly unknown and in Las Vegas the other familiar pests of 
much-visited regions (the mosquito and the flea) do not exist, nor is there 




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SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 19 

any malaiia. The climate is typical of the Rocky Mountains, highly stimi:- 
lating, and, on the other hand, in no way tropical. 

Experience has shown that it is always the most prudent? for those in 
whom the disease has been arrested to remain in the climate in which this 
cure has been effected, and even in this regard. New Mexico offers advan- 
tages. 

The territory, being "a new country," has inducements in agricultural, 
industrial, and commercial exploits for those who must live within her bor- 
ders, a circumstance the importance ot which cannot be underrated, when a 
question of earning a livelihood on the part of the patient is to be considered. 
The following statistical tables give facts of value to the healthseeker 
and the farmer showing as they do the record of rain- 
Climatic fall, temperature, etc., over a period of many years. 

Statistics and of especial value tb the farmer since they furnish a 

basis for comparison with the rainfall in other sections 
of the United States where farming without irrigation has been successful : 



MONTHLY AND ANNUAL PRECIPITATION AT LAS VEGAS, N. M. 

(FOR THE YEARS 1892 TO 1907 INCLUSIVE.) 





Jan. 


Feb. 1 


March April 


May 


JoDe 


July 


Ans; 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Annua 


1892.. 


1.22 


0.07 


1.72 


0.41 


0.54 


1.01 


2.28 


0.79 


0.48 


1.31 


0.05 


0.69 


10.57 


1893.. 


0.18 


1.16 


0.07 


0.00 


1.50 


025 


5.64 


6.97 


3.87 


.04 


0.00 


0.31 


19.99 


1894.. 


0.10 


1.66 


0.04 


0.54 


2.53 


2.S2 


2.89 


4.05 


X.22 


.08 





.28 


16.21 


1895.. 


1.00 


1.85 


0.30 


0.52 


4.02 


1.98 


6.84 


5.32 


T 


1.1? 


0.88 


0.82 


24.65 


1896.. 


0.19 


0.32 


0.83 


1.00 


0.11 


2.02 


3.87 


2.13 


4.38 


4.35 


0.02 


0.51 


19.73 


1897.. 


0.69 


0.70 


1.43 


0.37 


«.63 


1.23 


1.18 


3.29 


0.79 


1.94 


0.00 


0.59 


18.84 


1898.. 


0.51 


0.21 


0.49 


1.41 


1.04 


2.74 


4.63 


2.97 


1.59 


0.33 


0.29 


0.80 


17.01 


1899.. 


.... 


0.73 


6.70 


0.21 


0.40 


2.65 


7.09 


0.17 


2.87 


0.52 


0.43 


0.09 


15.86 


1900.. 


0.19 


0.25 


0.59 


2.25 


1.87 


3.50 


2.70 


2.23 


4.27 


1.98 


0.30 


0.46 


20.59 


1901.. 


0.27 


0.70 


0.14 


1.17 


5.55 


019 


3.70 


4.95 


2.00 


1.40 


1.78 


0.30 


22.15 


1902.. 


0.10 


0.10 


0.01 


0.06 


1.95 


0.30 


1.91 


1.83 


1.33 


0.47 


0.79 


0.93 


9.78 


1903.. 


0.07 


1.42 


0.13 


0.52 


0.22 


€24 


1.41 


3.57 


1.11 


0.00 


T 


0.12 


14.81 


1904.. 


0.20 


0.20 


T 


0.24 


0.97 


3.20 


4.95 


0.68 


6.07 


1.18 


0.06 


1.10 


18.84 


1905.. 


1.45 


1.84 


2.13 


3.07 


2.04 


156 


1.70 


1.34 


4.25 


0.48 


3.32 


0.68 


23.86 


1906.. 


.04 


1.02 


.47 


2.17 


1.08 


2.80 


7.82 


1.97 


1.86 


1.67 


.86 


1.32 


23.08 


1907.. 


1.57 


.01 


.07 


2.13 


2.57 


.77 


5.57 


3.30 


.22 


.82 


.77 


.20 


18.00 



Average By Months For 16 Years. 
.49 .76 .57 l.OO 2.07 2.08 4.01 2.85 ^2.27 |1.00 .60 .58 19,37 



PAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



21 



AVERAGE PRECIPITATION AT LAS VEGAS, N. M., FOR 21 YEARS, BY MONTHS. 
January 44 August 2.89 



February 99 

March -. .66 

April 96 

May 2.06 

June 1.91 

July 4.20 



September 2.50 

October 1.08 

November 85 

December 69 



Year 19.23 



Comparison between annual precipitation for years during whicli records have 
been kept ot Las Vegas, N. M., and other points where dry farnn.ng has been successful. 



Locality 



Number of Years of 
Record 



Average 
Precipitation 



Las Vegas, N. M 

Dcdge City, Kans 

Pierre, S. D 

North Platte, Neb 

Fort Collins, Colo 

San Lu: s, Colo 

Yuma, Colo 

Lavan, Utah 

Porowan, Utah 

Fort Laramie, Wyo 

Cheyenn e, Wyo .34 

Joseph, Ore .4 



.21 19.23 

.30 20.28 

.35 16.08 

.35 17.74 

.17 14.53 

.24 13.69 

.13 16.46 

.15 15.28 

.13 11-85 

.33 12.56 

12.99 

17.r.2 



Walla Walla, Wash. 
■Spokane, Warh. . . . 



.31 18.27 

,22 18.22 



TEMPERATURE 

(Comparative Records — 1906 and 



1907. 



Maximum 
Shade. 



Miuimum 
Shade 



Mean 
Shade 



Average .Vlax- 
imum Sun. 





|1905jl906|1907| 


1905 190611907 


1905|1906 


1907] 

^J7- 

41 

48 
i 49 

52 

62 

69 

63 
1 62 

51 
1 37 
1 34 


1905 1906 97 


January 

February 


57 

60 

G8 


63 
66 
63 
75 

86 
95 
93 
94 
89 
80 
74 
66 


50 
60 
65 
66 
67 
81 
38 
84 
81 
67 
54 
51 


-9 
-31 
18 
17 
32 
42 
I2 
46 
32 
21 
16 
-9 


6 

10 

9 

25 

23 

38 

42 

44 

38 

6 



7 


25 
23 
31 
31 
36 
44 
51 
52 
44 
35 
20 
17 


|31 

[ 32 

1 44 

1 m 

1 58 
67 
68 
69 
62 

j 50 

1 41 

1 28 


33 
36 
41 
49 

58 
67 
65 
67 

1 35 
49 

1 3S 
38 


....84 89 
....85 98 
84 95 




73 


....86 89 




81- 


90 83 




95 


....97 95 


July 


95 


97 102 




93 


.... 105 106 

104 106 

.... 102 97 
....94 94 
....93 87 




88 


October 

November 

December 


81 

72 

58 



Averaze for year . . . . | 77 | 79 | 64 | 18 | 20 | 34 | 44 | 48 r51 



93 I 95 



'So Record Kept. 
Record shows_Minimum not^Average. 

Mean of all temperatures for the year is about 50 degrees- 
Thermometric readings here must not be confused with similar degrees 
in humid climes. Recent actual comparisons showed prostrations from the 
heat at Baltimore, Md., and other eastern places with the thermometer at 94 
degrees, while immediately the thermometer reaches a maximum of 94 
degrees at Las Vegas, but here the air was light, cool in the shade, and brae- 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 23 

ing. Cover is essential every night in the year. July, August and Septera 
her, hot months in the eastern and southern states, are ideal here in health 
and comfort. 

In its natural water supply San Miguel county is by far the best water- 
ed portion of New Mexico. With its mountain ranges snow- 
Wai^r capped almost the year round, the streams which flow out of 
Supply them and across the level plains are certain of a flow at all sea- 
sons. Springs are abundant, while well water is found at very 
moderate depth, anywhere one chooses to dig. 

^lo other counlyjm New Mexico can compete with San Miguel in its 
agricultural possibihties. With creeks full of water for irrigating, if desir- 
ed, and an annual rainfall sufficient to render irriga- 
Agricultutal tion not absolutely necessary, the farmer can take his 

Resources choice of the two methods. What the country needs is 

farmers and settlers to take up and bring under culti- 
vation this splendid body of land lying almost idle and waiting for the plow- 
share to make it bring forth almost every known crop of the temperate zone. 
The advance guard of immigration that has swept across the United 
States has reached Central New Mexico and in continually increasing num- 
bers is coming this way and before many years every acre of ground in this 
county that is fit for tilling will be under cultivation and the wealth and 
population of the county will have doubled and even more. 

The community of Las Vegas is the fortunate possessor of an heritage 

worth millions of dollars. This is the vast Las Vega3 

The Las Vegas Land Grant, containing 437,000 acres, much of the 

Grant land admirably suited to agriculture, part of it heavily 

timbered, other parts holding yet! unknown value in 

immense deposits of the finest marble and building stone, copper, coal and 

other minerals. 

Until within the past few years it was impossible tJo secure a complete 
and satisfactory title to the lands on the Las Vegas Grant, a fact that has 
operated to hinder the settlement and development of the promising areas 
surrounding the city and town. Now that all matters of title have been ad- 
judicated, the infinite possibilities of the grant are being made known and 
deveLpment is going on with gratifying rapidity. 

A word as to the history of the grant. As long ago as 1845, the splen- 
did domain was granted by the government of Mexico to forty-five named 
grantees and others who desired a home within its borders. In i860, the 
grant was confirmed by the Congress of the United States. After years of 
litigation as to the ownership, which carried many of the questions raised to 



® 




»-■ 







S'AN MIGUEL COUNTY. 25 

the Supreme Court of the United States, on June 21st, 1903, a United States 
patent was issued, confirmino- the lands to the town of Las Vegas. The Dis- 
trict Court thereupon appointed a board of seven trustees to administer the: 
business of the grant under court supervision- This action of the court was 
approved by an act of the legislature, which designated the board as "The 
Board of Trustees of the Town of Lao Vegas," and added legislative au- 
thority to that of the court in empowering the seven trustees to tk'ansact the 
business of and administer the grant. 

The board of t^rustees had the whole grant surveyed and subdivided in- 
to sections and quarter sections and tlien announced itself ready to givie title 
to grant lands. The claims of settlers who had resided for a sufificient tim.e 
unon the land and had made improvements thereon, Avere given the first con- 
sideration. Scores of settlers have presented their claims before the boaid 
and have received titles to small holdings or homesteads of t6o acres eacb. 
Of the remainder of the lands in the g-rant about 121^.000 acres Iving to the 
east and north of the city have been sold in one bodv. This tract has in turn 
been disposed of to several comnanie"? who are activelv ensraeed at the pres- 
ent time m reselling the land to individual buvers. Manv eastern and south- 
ern farmers who have bought have alreadv moved with their families to thi-^ 
favored resfion and are busilv ensraeed in Dlowin^r the sod and establishing 
themselves in their new homes. It is onlv fair to state that all are highlv 
pleased with their neW location and thoroughly satisfied over the outlook for 
the future. 

With a view to demonstrating that abundant crops could be raised on 
the mesa lands which stretch in sweeping undulations for many miles east- 
ward from Las Vegas, by the emplovment of rational methods of farming 
the board, in the summer of 1896. presented the Campbell System Dry Farm- 
ing Association with six hundred and fortv acres of land. The land wa'-- 
conveyed too late to admit of crops being planted that season, but a number 
of other iRrmers planted crops of wheat and corn and oats and secure-:! 
bounteous returns. Early in 1907 the conduct of the experimental farm was 
placed in the hands of local parties and their report to the Board of Trus- 
tees of the grant of the results of their operations for the year follows : 



Report Showing Work and Results From Mesa Demonstration 

Farm 



Las Vegas, N. M., June 19, 190S. 
To tlie Honorable Board of Grant Commissioners, Las Vegas. 
Gentlemen : 

As per your request we beg to submit .the following report on "demon- 
stration larm." 

Un tne 20th of June, 1906, plowing of the sod lirst began and there 
were auoui 400 acres plowea wiui steam-piow, pacKed and iiariovvcd m June 
ana J my of tnat year, ine sprmg ot 1907 louownig, approxnnately 305 
acres ol tXiis ground (whicn nad ucen saimner-iaiiovvedj was put into crop 
and witn tne exccpLion 01 120 acres, ol wnicn we will teil later, was double 
harrowed aiiu douoie disKed and tnen seeded witn a seed drill, the loilowing 
tauie givn:g a synopsis ot tiie acreage, yield, etc : 

J\me:y acres ot wheat, Luruin-ivuruaiiKa variety, sowed on March 17 
to April I, 17 bushels yield to the acre, ^1.55 per hundred pounds b'. (J. B. 
Las Vegai. 

Une htndred and fifteen acres of oats. White Russian, sown April i to 
15, 35 Dusiieis yield to acre, i^i.75 per 100 lbs. t\ O. B. Las Vegas. 

iweiily- three acres sorgnum cane, sown June 15, 4 tons to acre, $9.00 
per ton. ^_^ , 

Thirty acres speltz, sown April 10, 30 bushels to acre used as feed. 

One hundred acres as follows : 

Fifty-five acres of wheat. Marvel, sown June i, 15 bushels to acre, al 
$1.55 pel 100 pounds. 

Twenty-five acres of wheat. Durum, sown June 5, 23 bushels to acre, 
$1.55 per loO pounds. 

Thirty acres of oats. Golden Fleece, sown June 8, 33 bushels to acre 
$1.75 per 100 pounds. 

Ten acres of speltz, sown June 10, 40 bushels to acre, used as feed- 
Sixty five tons of oat straw, baled F. O. B. farm, $6.00 gross. 

Description of soil and seed-bed preparation^ — The 120 acres above re- 
ferred to were again plowed, packed and double-harrowed and then seed 
drilled in with a seed-drill, finishing as late as June 10 with good results as 



S'AN MIGUEL COUNTY. 29 

the yield ■sbows, trie grain maturing nicely and being ready for harvest about 
the fore part of September. 

Besides this, ib acres were put into different varieties of garden truck, 
such as onions, peas, beans, pumpkins, mangle-beets, sweet corn, rhubarb, 
potatoes, cic._, and while there is no available data on these owing to the var- 
ious patches being small and somewhat irregular in shape, with the 
possible ex;eption of the potatoes, which were planted too late to mature, ail 
.novv^ed a healthy and thrifty growth and yielded very well. 

These crops were all cultivated several times during the season, also 
after rains and to the entire tilled ground and crops, as near as was applicable 
the Campbell method of farming was applied. Hoping this me^ts the ap- 
proval of the Board and the public, we conclude this report on the season of 
1907, by saying that so far as our observation and experience has carried us 
the tillable Jand on the mesa and grant is certainly productive of great re- 
sults wher 'farmed by "up"to-date" machinery and methods, and where scien- 
tific soil culture is followed. 

Respectfully submitted, 

ERB & WESTERMAN. 
June 19, 1908. 

Practically the entire area is under cultivation again this year, (1908). 

The soil has been pronounced by the experts of the territorial College 
of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, almost ideal for farming. Of it and other 
conditions. Prof. W. H. Campbell, the authority on scientific soil culture, 
yet with the rain and snowfall of this region at its average, almost any 
said in a recent public address in Las Vegas in reply to an inquiry : 

"In all my travels I havje yet to find a section of country that is better 
adapted to farming under my system of soil culture than this long neglected 
mesa land near Las Vegas. The possibilities are vast, and for successful 
agriculture I am safe in saying that this section of New Mexico cannot be 
excelled in any part of the United States. With your climate and your ideal 
conditions for farming, I do not see' anything but success ahead for the men 
who till the soil intelligently." 

Steam plows and other machinery needed to successfully farm large 
areas have already been purchased, and it is confidently anticipated that the 
harvest season of each year will see the green plains, which have given the 
city its name, covered with waving grain and fruitful fields of vegetables. 

While it is the intention of the farmers who are developing the lands 
to employ scientific methods suitable to the cultivation of semi-arid lands, 



S*AN MIGUEL COUNTY. 31 

method appears to be sufficient^ to encourage the deep rich soil of these 
plains to yield abundantly. , 

In depth and quality of soil, in the openness of the land, in the abund- 
ance of the rainfall, no part of New Mexico can surpass the mesa lands east 
of Las Vegas for farming without irrigation. The purpose of the grant 
trustees bemg rather to bring in farmers than to profit by the income de- 
rived from the sale of the land, the opportunity for homeseekers is unusual- 
ly good. ' It' 

The i)oard of trustees warrants the title to the lands sold. 

While it is not the first ohiect of the board to derive an income from the 
sale of grant lands, yet the disposition of 150,000 acres is certain fo bring in 
a large sum of money. To what end this money will be expended has not 
j^et been decided, but whether it be for the betterment of the public schools 
on the p-rant, the improvement of roads, the lowering of taxes, or for all of 
these objects, the eflfect upon the prosperity of the grant community cannot 
fail to be pronounced. Both the citv and town of Las Veq"as are upon the 
grant and v/ill share the benefits that result from the expenditure of the in 
come. 

The* p-rant board as on'o-inally appointed and as still constituted is coni- 
po^jp-^ of t^p fo^ln-wino- wHI known men: Jefl^^rson "Ravnoldt;. nresid^nt of 
the First National Bank of Las Vep-as, rre-Ment; Fl'^ha V. Long. formeT 
Chief Ti'sticf of New Meviro. s^^crp^^arv: Fup-'^'^io R-^mero, Charles Ilfeld, 
Jose Felix Fsntu'^el. Fredf^nVk H. Pi'^rrf^. Tsid'^t- Galleq"os. 

None of the land on the p"ra"t is being <^old bv t^e Grant Board direct' 

but only through the various companies who have purchased lar^^e tracts and 

the local real esfate deaVrs. The value of the land has been 

Price of constantiv increasing durino- the past two or three vears unt'.l 

Land ^* *^^ present fime not much of the land is for sale at less 

than %J^.no per acre, but, considering the perfect title, free- 
dom of all red tane exactions of the Federal Land Department, and the fnrth 
er fact that the dav you pav for your land von secure your title almost 
strai"-ht from the Simreme Court of the United States, it is considered ?. 
much better proposition to the intendinq- settler than tb take un open govern- 
ment land and comnlv with the homestead laws under which the price wouV. 
not be very much different in the end. 

Diirinpr the last two vears or more much has been said concerninsr so- 
railed "dry" farmine in San Mipaiel county. "Dry farming" is hardly the 
phrase to apply, when it is remembered that at Las Veo-as the 
Farminji averap-e annual precipitation is nearly 10 inches, and 80 per 
cent of this precipitation falls durine the erowins" months from 
April to October. CSee table under climatHc statistics') . In the hiehe* 
regions of the county, the rainfall is considerably more than in Las Vesras. 

For scores of years, in various parts of the county, temporal crops have 
been grown in abundance with scarcely a failure. The SPil has merely been 




d 
'^ i3 M ffi 



^ 


1 1 













S'AN MIGUEL COUNTY. 33 

Stirred to a depth of two or three inches and the corn or oats or beans plant- 
ed and left to mature or fail, little or no attempt to encourage their growth 
being made. The uniformity with which such crops nave reached an abund 
ant harvest, year after yei^r, makes it appear the more remarkable that th'; 
acreage under cultivation is not much greater than it is. The fact, previous- 
ly alluded to, that hundreds of thousands of acres nearest the city are in 
( luded ill the Las Vegas grant, is probably largely accoun,table. 

Such successful farmers as George VV. Ward, W. H. Comstock and 
Dr. F. E. Olney have for years planted crops which have come to bountiful 
maturity without irrigation, and have never known a failure. These practi- 
cal farmers have employed rational farming methods, but have not resorted to 
what is known as the dry farming system of deep plowing and sub-surface 
cultivation. It is the intention of the farmers who are taking up the lands 
eastward from the city to utilize the Campbell dry farming methods, and 
there is no doubt but the employment of such methods will increase the pro- 
ductivenss of the soil, as well as secure the success of the crops should any 
year's rainfall come much below the average. Since the records of the 
weather bureau have been kept, only one year has brought a drouth and then 
the precipitation fell to a little less than ten inches, and of this amount 7.3-' 
inches fell in the months of May, June, July, August and September. Wheat, 
oats, corn, beans, peas, celery and all kinds of vegetables have been the 
staple crops, but lately there have been introduced also kaffir corn, milo maize, 
sorghum, held peas. Durum wheat and a variety of the dry farming crops. 

Water is to be obtained in abundance on the mesa land at a depth of 
from 15 to 140 feet. The market for all kinds of crops raised here is large 
and increasing. Far the largest part of the food stuffs consumed in Las 
Vegas and surrounding country is now imported and it will be years before 
the home demand can be supplied. The wheat raised in this region make-J 
excellent flour. Already sevjeral flouring mills have been established. The 
raising o! winter wheat for home manufacture promises to^ become a leading 
industry. The soil is also fine:ly adapted to the culture of sugar beets and d 
number of farmers already interested in the mesa lands have devoted consid- 
erable acreage to these vegetables this year for the first time. 

A beet sugar factory is promised when a sufificient acreage shall be se- 
cured. 

The west does not afiford elsewhere so large an area of rich unimproved 
farming lands so closely adjacent to ready markets. 

There are on exhibition in Las Vegas at the present time samples of crops 
raised without irrigation during the past season showing yields as follows • 



34 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



Spe:ltz, 6 1 to 85 bushels per acre. 
Oats, 30 to 75 bushels per acre. 
Macaroni Wheat, t8 to 40 bushels to the acre. 
Marvel Spring Wheat, 25 to 40 bushels to the acre. 
Alfalfa, two to four tons per acre. 
Oats cut for hay, 3 to 5 tons to the acre. 

To summarize briefly — where can be found a tract of land with wonder - 

fully productive soil and rainfall, ade- 
quate if not abundant, building mater- 
ials of all kinds at its very doors, fuel 
in ample quantities, a superb climate 
conducive to the best of health, and 
above everything a market immediate- 
ly at hand capable of utilizing every 
])ound of produce that can be raised, at 
prices considerably higher than those 
of the eastern markets. Such are the 
conditions that exist with regard to 
the land to be cultivated by the scien- 
tific farming methods. 

While the dry or scientific method 
of farming is comparatively new, it 
has been demonstrated to the satisfac- 
tion of the average western farmer 
that it is entirely practical and has 
come to stay. Yet in many of the val- 
levs of the county abundance of water 
can be obtained from the streams for farming under the ancient and establish ■ 
ed method of irrigation, and in this connection, the following pages will be 
of interest. 

For more years than the oldest inhabitant can remember irrigation has 
been successfully practiced in San Miguel county. Wherever the waters of 
the Rio Gallinas, the Rio Sapello, the Rio Pecos, the Rio Tecolote, and the 
other streams in the county have been utilized, unfailing crops have been rais- 
e d. But th e greatest of all needs in San Miguel county is farmers. Of mer- 
chants, lawyers, doctorse politicians, middlemen, statesmen, etc., the supply is 
usually equal to the demand; but the farmer, the basis of development, and 
the foundation stone and superstructure of all public prosperity, individual, 
local, state and national — the man who tills the soil m rational, intelligent 
and successful ways — is the man needed here. 




Offices Agua Pura Co. 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



35 



The native population of the county are natural sheepmen and cattlemen, 
and devote most of their attention to these profitable industries. In many in- 
stances they have their homes located in rich valleys capable of producing" 
large and paying crops, but at the same time import their corn and flor.r 
from the middle states. 

In San Miguel county, the above mentioned valleys have ample water, if 
intelligently used, iio supply with wheat, oats, corn and hay, a population of 
200,000 people, yet, for a lack of farmers, there are on an average twelve 
carloads of flour, three! of corn and five of oats shipped into the county pe'^ 
month the year round. This is the natural result of t^e condition of our in- 
dustries. The cattle and sheepmen are not producers of hay, grain and 
fruits, nor do they even raise garden truck, but they buy oats by the ton, and 
they buy bacon,' garden products and fruit. The miners who delve for cop 
per. coal, silver and gold are many, and they buy imported products at good 
prices and yet it has been repeatedly demonstrated that agriculture on almost 
any scale will pay handsome returns. 

Three cuttings of alfalfa are secured, orchards flourish mightily and 
gardens are nowhere in the world more producti-vie. 

The Gallinas Canal, and Water Storage and Irrigation Company, capi 
talized at $10,000, furnishes a startling object lesson of the feasibility of re- 
claiming land by simple irrigation methods. A main ditch is conducted three 

miles out from the Gallinas River supplying a natural reservoir covering 3^. 
acrp<5 of giound. From this reservoir, by ditches and laterals, water is con- 




Las Vegas Hospital 



36 SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 

veyed to the several farms lining the system, each having a private reservoir 
which is led from the river in the flood season and which is capable of irri- 
gating its respective tract of two or three; times during the dry season. Under 
this system about 1,500 acres of waterless uplands have been reclaimed fd 
agriculture. The farms watered in this manner adjoin the city of Las Vegas 
and vary lu size from 12 to 450 acres, the small tracts being sufficient to sup- 
ply the needs of small families. 

Experiments made in vegetable raising have been prolific of as good rt- 

suits as those of producing grain. One year's crop of 

Some Actual vegetables on less than six acres of ground resulted in 

Results. -11,1^3 pounds of beets, 40,537 pounds of cabbage, 2,960 

pounds of carrots, 2,800 pounds of parsnips, 2,220 

pounds of onions, 1,022 pounds of cauliflower, 1,049 pounds of turnips, 184 

oounds ot string beans, 930 pounds of cucumbers, 10 pounds of lettuce, 21 

pounds of Jav^, 40 punds of green peas, 600 roasting ears of corn, 100 

pounds 01 rhubarb, 600 pounds of celery, 26 pounds of beans, 2,186 pounds 

of corn in the ear, 3,000 pounds of oats in sheaves, 5,600 pounds of shock 

fodder, a total of 81,800 pounds of product, valued at $2,050. This from 

six acres oi ground, which a short time before had been a barren hillside. 

Beets weighing fourteen pounds, cabbages 36, and turnips 4, were com- 
mon features of the crop. From one ounce of seed, 1,000 pounds of sugar 
beets weie raised. Celery weighing four pounds to the stalk and a dozen 
bunches weighing as much as five dozen of the Kalamazoo product, foui" 
cabbages \^clghlng 137 pounds, and two more weighing 75 pounds were the 
results 01 another practical gardener's experiments. Potatoes in the higher 
mountain valleys give, without irrigation, a yield unexcelled in quality, size 
and quantity, by any country in the world. 

For several years sugar beets have been grown in a small way, very 
largely as an experiment and with what success is shown by the following 
letter f rorr the Department of Agriculture : 

Washington, D. C, December 6, 1907 
Las Vegas, N. M. 

Las Vegas, N. M. 
Dear Sir: — 

1 beg to give you the following report of the test of sugar beets as furn- 
ished by die Bureau of Chemistry: 

Average weight of beets 10 ozs. 

Sugar 111 the juice, percent 20.80 

Coefficient of purity, per cent 88.85 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY 



37 



This report should not, of course, be compared with a test made imme 
diately after the beets are removed from the ground, as more or less evapor- 
ation of moisture takes place in transit, causing the beets to test higher in 
sugar. Vou will also note that the percentage of "sugar in the juice" is 
given, whereas the sugar factories take the "sugar in the beet" as their stand- 
ard for quality. After taking these points mto consideration, you will sec 
that your beets come within the requirements for sugar-making purposes, viz. 
12 percent ''sugar in the beet," which is about one percent lower than the 
"sugar in the juice," and 80 per cent for coefficient of purity. 

Yours very truly, 

C. O. TOWNSEND, 
Pathologist in charge of sugar beet investigations. 

Numerous other letters from the Department have been received by 
other growers all showing tests equally good or far above the averag*.. 

Many acres of beets have been signed up this year for shipment to Colo" 












Grown Without Irrigation. 



38 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



rado pending the establishment of a beet sugar factory at Las Vegas or in 

the immediate vicinity. 

As an evidence of the remunerative features of farming and gardening 
in this county, it may be said that eastern prices with a high freight rate ad- 
ded, prevail, for the reason that the home products have never been sufficient 
to make any impression on the market, and as there is no competition, 
freight and express rates are mantained as high as possible. Nearly all of 
the eggs and poultry used in the county are imported. The price of eggs is 
30 cents per dozen, and home ranch eggs command even a higher price. This 
rate is maintained the year round, for their is no diminution of the demand. 
Everything possible for the farmer to grow commands one-third more than 
the same product in the e;ast, and the market exists at home for all that can 
be produced. | 

The government reclamation engineers have selected a site for a reser- 
voir where the waters of the Gallinas and the Sapello can be diverted into 
a natural basin in the hills. This project has been ap 
Government proved by the Reclamation Service and the Secretary of 
Resevoir, the Interior and, as soon as the money can be spared 

from the reclamation fund, the enterprise which will 
bring under irrigation 10,000 acres of prime land will be carried through. 

Assurance has been received that the Las 
Vegas project will be the nextto receive atten- 
tion fron the department. 

The land to be brought under cultivation by 
this government enterprise is capable of rais- 
ing any crops known to the Temperate Zone. 
It is part of the Las Vegas Grant, and while a 
large part of the acreage to be served with wa- 
ter has already been signed for, still there is 
room for many more settlers, under the system 
as it will be the policy to have the lands taken 
up in small tracts of 40 to 80 acres, it being 
estimated that 40 acres of this land, properly 
handled and systematically farmed will be 
enough for the ordinary farmer to successful- 
ly manage. There is no question but that the 
reservoir will be built, and tliat it will be push- 
On the Scenic Highway. ed to a rapid completion when once started. 
There are no engineering obstacles to overcome, no unusual situations to 




SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



89 



meet ; all that is needed is the appropriation of ,tihe necessary money from the 
reclamation fund. 

The leservoir will be a reservoir pure and simple, as it will store up tht 
flood waters of the two streams named; and as they head in the snow-cap- 
ped mountains where storms are frequent there is no possible chance for fail- 
ure for want of water. There will be enough and to spare as has been well 
proven oy the government engineers who for two years past have maintain- 
ed water measuring stations in both streams. Meantime, while the govern- 
ment will do the work in its proper turn, the project is open to any colony or 
mutual concern that might be formed to build the reservoir and maintain it 
as a purei} private enterprise. 

W,ith its great agricultural resources only now beginning to be devel- 
oped, San Miguel county is one of the leading livestock-raising counties of 

New Mexico. Its boundless prairies, great moun- 
The Livestock Indus>' tain ranges, creeks, rivers and springs, purest 
try of San Miguel Co, mountain water, shelter in the foot hills and 

canons, all make it an ideal country for the stock- 
raiser. Since 1835, the ranges of San Miguel County have been well stocked 
with cattle, sheep, goats, and horses, and today the grass shows no signs of 
diminution, and each succeeding year the crop of native grasses comes forth 
to gladden the herders' eyes. 




Lake at El Porvenlr 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 41 

On the open prairies, the most prevalent is the ''Gramma" that most 
valuable of all western grasses, while in some districts the "Blue Stem" of 
Western Kansas is slowly gaining a foothold. In ,the foot hills, there is some 
''Gramma," considerable "White Bunch Grass" and a great deal of the 
"Sacaton" and in the higher ranges, we find all of these besides considerable 
areas of both "Red" and "White" Clover, Wild Oats, Wild Timothy and a 
rank coarse grass, excellent in spring, known locally as "Wild Rye." 

Of Browse, there is the sage of the Western Plains in a dozen different 
varieties, while in the foot hills, there are many small, scrubby bushes that 
stock of all kinds love to eat and which in years of short grass crops, serve 
to satisfy the animals. 

These edible bushes are to the stock-raisdr quite as valuable and neces- 
sary as the grass, in fact more so, for while in dry years the grasses may fail. 
still it has never been known to be so dry that the browsing was not sufficient 
to carry llie herds through until the grass came again. 

Of cattle, San Miguel County has in round numbers, about 60,000 
head. There are few large herds in the county, the most of the holdings 
being in small herds of from 100 to 500 head. 

The largest herd in the county is that of the great Bell Ranch, incorpor- 
ated under the name of the "Red River Valley Cattle Company." This huge 
herd numbers about 25,000 of the very best cattle in New Mexico, or any 
where else in the West, for that matter. For many years, they have been 
using onl} registered bulls, of the short horn breed, many of them imported 
animals. The steers of the "Bell Brand" are eagerly sought by eastern 
buyers every year at prices always a dollar or two above the usual prices paid 
throughout the cattle breeding country. 

This herd is ranged entirely under fence, in the southern portion of the 
county on a vast tract of land knwn as the "Montoya grant" consisting 01 
about 800,000 acres of the very best grazing land in the whole west. 

The company is an eastern corporation, owned principally in New Haven, 
Conn., and Mr. C. M. O'Donel is the local manager. Messrs. Hicks and 
Jones of Las Vegas also have large holdings in cattle near the Bell Ranch, 
and Mr. J. D. Hand, at Los Alamos, a short distance from Las Vegas, has ,\ 
good-sized herd of well bred cattle on a ranch of some 50,000 acres all under 
fence. 

The cattle of San Miguel County are well bred, well grown, and at all 
times command a good price on the markets. Cattle are assessed at $IQ per 
head. 

There are some 200,000 sheep and goats in the county, all being in smal^ 



42 SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 

holdings, there being very few large owners. Thej grade of the sheep Is 
fully up to the average of New Mexico's bes.tf sheep-raising districts, and the 
average shearing is about fiv^e pounds to the animal. There is no industry 
that offers more allurmg returns as an investment than the sheep business 
here in New Mexico. One instance comes to the writer as having been 
worked out directly under his eyes this past year. In the month of February, 
1906, an eastern man with little or no experience in the sheep-raising busi- 
ness, purchased a small ranch m the southwestern part of the county for 
$2,000. He then contracted for 5,000 ewes of a party in an adjoining 
county, paymg $5 per head for the lot, or just $25,000 in all. The seller 
agreed to lun the sheep until June 15th at this price and the buyeT to pay the 
actual cost of the lambing. From the 5,000 ewes he saved and raised an 
equal number of lambs, to be, exact, 4,250 head. The sheep sheared almost 
six pounds each. He sold his lambs in the month of December for $3 each 
and his wool brought him 21 cents per pound. Each ewe then brought for 
ner wool $1.26 and the 4,250 lambs made an average for each ewe of about 
$2.50, making a total income from each ewe of about $3.75, which on Jan- 
uary ist, 1907, makes his herd cost him just $1.25 per head! plus the cost of 
six months' running of them which is liberally estimated at 50 cents per head. 
\t the time of the purchase he was looked upon as a plunger, but the record 
shows that he used good judgment and that his investment was a most con- 
servative and remunerative one. This is not a suppositious case, but an 
actual experience, and doubtless has been equalled if not excelled in many 
other instances during the past two or three years. 

In goats, the holdings are of the Mexican type, there being but a few of 
the Angora breed here; but there is a wide field open for these valuable 
animals in the foothills along the mountains whose brushy slopes are unfit 
lor any other stock and in which the goats of all breeds find a most ideal 
range. 

San Miguel County has a great many horses, but no very general effort 
has been made to raise other than the ordinary western range horse, but of 
such theie is a good supply which have sold in the past three! years at most 
excellent prices. 

Under the dry farming methods, where the stock-raiser will raisel a few 
hundred tons of forage, kaffir corn, sorghum and l^he like for winter feeding 
and allow his animals to run on the open range! in summer, more than twice 
the number of livestock can be safely and successfully raised in the county. 

The day of the large herds is gone, and in its place comes the small 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 43 

holder, who, following out the plan outlined above, can surely prosper, and 
be secure in his investment. 

To such, San Miguel County offers a most satisfactory and pleasanl 
location, and whether it be cattle, sheep, or horses, there is no better place if. 
all the west for the prospective settle,r. 

San Miguel County is a vast storehouse of Mineral wealth, proven 
Th M' 1 values thus far discovered including gold, silver, 

n r copper, zinc, aluminum, mica, coal, iron, tin, lead, 

Kcsottpccs ot 
c KM' 1 r alum„ gypsum, fire clay, marble and a vast wealth 

■ * ''^' of building stone. These mineral deposits have as 

yet had no systematic development and their possibilities present a most 

attractive field both to the prospector and investor. 

The first attention called to iJhe mineral resources of the territory im- 
mediately surrounding Las Vegas was in 1900, when it was discovered that 
the immense ledges of sandstone covering large areas to the west and south- 
west of Las Vegas were heavily impregnated with copper. This region now 
embracer the mining districts of Seltire, Mineral Hill, San Pablo, San Miguel 
and Tecolote, none of which are well defined districts, but in all of which 
more or less prospecting has been done. The copper deposits are usually 
blanket m form and as a rule are of very low grade, avjeraging less than 
three per cent of metallic copper. The ore is principally malachite, althougli 
occasional pockets of high grade; glance are encountered. Leaching, appar 
entiy, is the only process by which the ores can be successfully treated and 
experimental runs by two plants have given satisfactory results. Improved 
methods and an advance in the price of copper means the treatment of evety 
ton of this ore. 

Prospecting in this region has been greatly hampered until recently 
because of unconfirmed land grants which barred absolute title. Since the 
matter of title has been satisfactorily adjusted by the courts, prospecting 
is now more active and extensive development is but a question of a short 
time. 

The Rociada mining district, lying on the apex of what is known locally 
as the Las Vegas range, comprises an area of about 100 square miles of min- 
eral-bearing land. It occupies the northern part of San Miguel and the 
southwestern part of Mora county. The altitude varies from 7,200 to 10,000 
feet and the topographical contour of thej region is such as to make mining 
much easier than in many parts of the territory. First class wagon roads 
lead from the lower country to the immediate neighborhood of the properties 
now being operated, while water and t mber are plentiful. The Pecos forest 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 45 

reserve covers a portion of the district, but the individual prospector or 
operator may obtain timber for the) asking, while the charge to corporations 
is very small. The general formation of the district is schist, porphyry and 
graphite, and the principal mineral values are in gold, sih^er, copper, zinc 
lead and iron. Molybdenum, wolfonitd and mica are also found. Very re- 
cently mercury has been discovered in Mora county a few miles north of this 
district, and two companies are now operating there. Assays from this dis- 
covery show values of from i to lo per cent, whik the ores carry gold assay- 
ing from $i8 to $2,000 per ton. A number of well developed properties bea*" 
evidence of the merit of the district. The chief drawback to all these districts, 
as well as to the Pecos River district, which has in the mines of the Pecos 
River Copper Company, the* largest producing property in the county, is lack 
of adequate railroad facilities. When cheap transportation has been sup- 
plied, as it will be before much time has passed, these districts will take their 
rightful place in the mining industry of the southwest. 

In addition to the mineral resources, marble of high grade and superior 
finishing qualities has been found V^ery close to Las Vegas, and a completely 
equipped mill for cutting has beeh erected in Las Vegas. In buildinrr stone. 
immense ledges of white and colored h'me and sandstone, close at hand sfive 
Las Vegas an inexhaustable supply of building material which mav be had 
at verv small cost. In timber, San Mis^uel county is particularly favored, the; 
mountain ranges within and contiefuous to t^e county carrying uncounted 
millions of feet of the best lumber in the weist. Forests of clean veHow au'l 
white pine cover the mountains in manv cases to their very tiops, while 
spruce, cedar, fir and other trees typical of the region supplv limitles-: 
material for ties, piling and bridge construction. Close to Las Ve^-as a num- 
ber of sawmills are in operation, and while they have been runninsf for vears 
in manv cases, no apparent impression has been made upon the supply. 

For twentv-fiv/e years the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Company has 
had the onlv railroad through Las Vegas and San Misfuel countv. Recentb/ 

however, a survey has been completed for the Fl Paso & South- 
Failroads. western systefm, better known as the "Phelps Dodge system,*' 

for a line from the company's great coal camp at Dawson, 
through Las Vegas to a connection with the main Southwest'ern line at 
Corona. This survey has been approved, and while the actual date for 
beginning has not been determined, the construction is certain and will give 
Las Vegas and the county a second greSat railroad system, supplying every 
present need in the way of transportation. The immediate result of con- 



-■ry^i^?***'' -* 




£3 
bo 

> 
m 



o 

o 
m 

•a 

£ 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 47 

struction of this line will be the opening of a vast areia now practically 
unknown, and a great increase in population and wealth. 

The Santa Fe maintains a branch from Las Vegas to the Las Vegas 
Hot Springs, six miles distant. At these springs the railroad company owns 
a magnificent hotel, built and equipped at a cost of more than $1,000,000. 
While temporarily closed, the famous Montezuma hotel, it is expected, will 
soon be opened again by private capital. 

San Miguel county has an educational system, both in the common 

schools and the higher work which will compare favorably not only with any 

county in New Mexico, but with any county in * the United States. It is 

j^i possible for the youth of this county to go tJhrough the 

r, 1 ^, 1 lower branches in the district or public schools and 
educational . . . , . 

^ continue through to a finished education and a post 

^ ' graduate course without leaving the county. This is 

made possible through a splendidly conducted system of public schools in the 

city and town of Las Vegas, well managed and efficient district schools in 

the rural districts and the presence in Las Vegas of the New Mexico Normal 

University, an institution maintained by the territory and which doe's full 

college work under the direction of an able faculty. The normal school in 

East Las Vegas, occupies one of the handsomest buildings of its class in the 

west, and is a monument to the thoroughness with which New Mexico has 

gone about perfecting her educational syst'etn. 

In addition to this system, maintained at public expense, there are 
several excellent private and denominational schools. In Las Vegas the 
Sisters of Loretto maintain an academy for girls which is always full to its 
capacity of 200. There are in addition a Presbyterian Mission school, a 
school conducted by the Jesuit fathers the De La Salle institute, conducted 
bv the Christian brothers, a training school for girls and young women con- 
ducted by the Women's Home Mission society of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. '^ 

The citv of Las Vegas possesses the distinction of having been the firs', 
community in New Mexico tb erect a public school building by means of a 
special tax voted by the people, and since that time the city has steadily main- 
tained its standard. 

The High school gives a four years' course and coming from a well- 
conducted grammar school, the pupil who goes through the public schools of 
Las Vegas has a thoroughly ^grounded education which may be finished with 
equal thoroughness and at very small expense in the Normal University. 
With such a public school system and with the Normal University right it 




Views at Trout Springs 



SAN MIGUE L COUNTY. 49 

I 

hand, persons who contemplate making homes in San Miguel county either 
for health or mvestment need have no fear that inferior advantages will be 
provided. The legal school age is from 5 to 21 years, but the average 
attendance is between 7 and 17 years in' age. 

Following ar,e some of the settlements given by the United States Postal 

Guide : The resources of the country contiguous, population within a radius 

X-, of five miles and distance from Las Vegas, a description of 

^ .J Las Vegas is given in the following pages : 

Bellranch — Postoffice at the ranch of the Red River Valley 
Conipany. Sixty-five miles east of Las Vegas. On Pablo iMontoya land 
grant. Topography, plains, with some| rough country. Well watered. An 
ideal stock country. 

Beulah — A small village at the head of Sapello ri\ter. Twenty mile-> 
northwest of Las Vegas. On the Pecos reserve. Resourcd.s : agriculture, 
timber and stock-raising. Population, 50 families. 

Chapelle — Railway station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail- 
way. Thirteen miles southwest of Las Vegas. Resources : timber and graz- 
ing. Stock yards located here. Population, 100 families. Many prosperous 
tributary hamlets. 

• Chaperito — Located on the Gallin ; river. Thirty miles southwest of 
Las Vegas. On Antonio Ortiz grant. Resources: stock-raising and farm- 
ing. Population, 373. Three stores. 

El Pueblo — No postoffice. Located on the Pecos river. Thirtyfive 
miles southwest of Las Vegas. Resources : stock-growing and agriculture. 
Population, 300. 

Fulton — Railway station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail- 
way. Forty miles west of Las Vegas. Resources : stock-growing and 
farming. Many small villages near by. Population, 150. 

Gallinas Springs — No postoffice. Located on the Santa Rosa wagon 
road. Twenty-five miles south of Las Vegas. Resources : stock-growing 
and farming. Population, 400. 

Gonzales — Located forty miles east of Las Ve^gas. Resources: stock- 
raising and farming. Population, 125. 

Las Vegas Hot Springs — No postoffce. Famous health resort, located 
six miles northwest of Las Vegas. Population, 224. (See description 
further along.) 

La LiendrC — Located twenty-four miles southeast of Las Vegas. Re- 
sources : stock-raising and farming. Population, 185. 

Los Alamos — Settlement in beautiful Sapello Canyon, ten miles north- 




o 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 61 

east of Las Vegas. Resources = stock-raising and farming. Especially 
adapted to raising sheep and goats. I'opulation, 373. 

Mnicral Hill — Located fifteen miles due west of Las Vegas. Resources : 
stock-raising, lumbering and farming. Populaton, 536. 

Olguin — Located on the Pecos river. Forty- five miles south of Las 
Vegas. Resources: farmings, stock-raising and timber. Population, 196. 

Onava — Station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway. Nine 
miles north of Las Vegas. Resources: railroad settlement and farming. 
Population, 90, , 

Pecos — On the Pecos river, fifty miles southwest of Las Vegas. The 
precinct is one of the largest in the county, and has a, population of 536. 
Resources ; stock-growing and farming. 

Porvenir — Health and pleasure resort in Gallinas canyon, at the foot of 
Hermit's Peak. Eighteen miles northwest of Las Vegas. Population, 200. 
One of the most beautiful scenic resOrts in the west. 

Ribera — Station on Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway, thirty 
miles west of Las Vegas. Resources : farming and stock-raising. Population 
300. 

Rociada — Located thirty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas. A coming 
mining district. Some farming and sheep-raising. Population, 298. 

Romero — Located on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway. 
Five miles south of Las Vegas. Location of the Romero Ranch resort, san- 
itarium for tuberculosis patients. Resources : farming and stock'raising. 
Population, 120. 

Rowe — Station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway, forty 
miles from Las Vegas. Resources : timber, agriculture and stock-raising. 
Population, 391. 

San Ignacio — No postoffice. Located eighteen miles northwest of Las 
Vegas. Noted as a summer resort. Chief industry is lumbering. Sawmills 
located here. In the Rociada mining district. Population, 300. 

San Jose — Located about thirty miles southwest of Las Vegas. Re- 
sources: farming and fruit raising. Population, 540. 

San Miguel — Located thirty miles southwest of Las Vegas. Splendid 
agricultural and stock country. Was the county seat of San Miguel county 
in the early sixties. Population, 450. 

Sapello — Located twelve miles northwest of Las Vegas, on the Mora 
wagon road. Excellent agricultural and stock country. Flour mill located 
here. Population 351. 

Sena — On the Pecos river, thirty-five miles southwest of Las Vegas. 




'■3 






Pi 
03 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 63 

Resources: agriculture and stock-raising. Population, 210. 

Sibley or Upper Las Vegas — Located three miles north of Las Vegas. 
Resources : farming. Population, 400. 

Tecolote — Located twelve miles south of Las Vegas. Resources: agri- 
culture and stock-growing. Population, 227. 

Trementina — Located about fifty miles east of Las Vegas in the valley 
of the Pecos. Resources : , farming and stock-raising — principally sheep. 
Population, 550. 

Valley Ranch — Located fifty miles west of Las Vegas on the Pecos 
river. Popular health and summer resort. Accessible to splendid hunting 
and fishing. Resources' agriculture and mining. Population, 50. 

Villanueva — On the Pecos river, thirty-eight miles southwest of Las 
Vegas. Resources : agriculture and stock-raising. Population, 100. 

In ne'arly all of the above districts fruit growing is carried on to some 
extent. 

In health and pleasure resorts Las Vegas is unrivaled. In a radius of 

twenty miles, in romantic mountain glens and beside babbling mountain 

brooks, are the Las Vegas Hot Springs, Harvey's, El Porvenir. 

Resorts, Blake's, Spark's, Sapello, Rociada, and other places too numerous 

to mention, where health may be recovered, and life becomes a 

pleasure to the etinuye, the invalid, the overworked business man. 

The Las Vegas Hot Springs are located six miles from town, and are 
connected with the city by rail. The Montezuma hotel, owned by the 
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, is a palatial fire-proof 
structure of red sandstone and iron. Queen Anne' style, with several hundred 
rooms, and erected at a cost of $250,000. The other buildings are numerous, 
consisting of cottages, and annexes, b ith houses, hospital, postoffice, casino, 
station house, schoolhouse, telegraph and express offices, livery barn, etc. 
There is also the Mountain house, with a sun parlor attached, a stone struct 
tire of sixty rooms. The park and grounds cover 500 acres, while the 
veranda, on three sides of the Montezuma, is 1^40 fe)et long and fifteen feet 
wide. It is positively asserted that no place in the United States equals the 
Montezuma property for the establishment of a governme'nt military or naval 
sanitarium for invalid soldiers returning from the tropic island possessions. 
The buildmgs, the grounds, the locality and the climate are incomparable 
The resort is closed at the present time, but negotiations are undr way for 
the reopening of the property by private capital and under private manage- 
ment. 

El Porvenir, a charmingly situated resort, has an elevation of 7,600 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 55 

feet, and is reached from Las Vegas Dy a drive of sixteen miles, over the 
new Scenic Route, ten of which lie through the Gallinas Canyon, evfery turn 
of which unfolds a new scene of inspring beauty and grandeur. Hermit's 
Peak rears its rugged head near by, the two hours' climb to the summit 
revealing a panorama of mountain, canyon, and plain unequalled even in 
this section. Excellent hunting and fishing can be had near the hotel, while 
the deep unruffled blue of the sky, the dry, invigorating air, the primeval 
pine forcils with their balsamic odors and ceaseless sounds, unite to make an 
ideal resort. 

Pleasure and healthseekers are cared for in cottages and tents if desired. 

Harvey's Mountain Home is probably the highest cultivated point in 
this county, having an altitude ot io,vjoo feet. This makes it an unsurpassed 
resort for summer visitors, whom Mr. Harvey conveys to and from the city, 
arriving each Friday and leaving on Saturdav. Every comfort of country 
life is pro\'ided on this ranch, while the visltbr can fish or hunt turkey, deer, 
bear, m.ountain lion, wolves, and other game to his or her heart's content. 

In addition to the resorts above describe'd may be mentioned Buena 
Vista ranch, four miles from Las Vegas ; Romero Ranch resort, four miles 
south of Las Vegas; Trout Springs, ten miles; Mineral Hill, twenty miles: 
Sandoval's summer resort, sixteen miles ; J- Y. Lujan's, twelve miles ; Cut- 
ler's, Heinlin's, Barber's and Bljikp's, four excellent places near Rociada — 
these and many others furnish sufficient chano-es to occuny summe'r and fall 
without the visitor ever becomino- wearv. Places to visit or camn, conven 
ient to the citv, are Hermit's Peak, Gallinas Canvon, Kearnev's Gap, Wild 
Cat Peak, Lower Gallinas Canvon. Bnnito Canvon, Las Valles, and the 
summit of the range, where snow always lies and the view' swee'ps over New 
Mexico into Colorado, Arizona and Texas. The Peros National Park, set 
apart by the gov)"rnment to be preser^/ed in a state of nature, is of easy acces.'S 
from this city, and when once seen will never be forgotten. 

Las Vegas is the natural sanitarium of the LTnited States, combining 
more natural advantages than any other place in America. Its thermal 
waters are the equal of the Hot Springs of Arkansas, while its 
A Natural climate is infinitely superior. There is no malaria, no excessive 
Sanitarium, heat nor cold, no gnats nor mosquitoes, no tarantulas, no 
spiders, no toads, no snakes nor rats. The air is pure, dry, 
rarified, and highly electrified — a certain cure for consumption, if taken in 
time. The hot waters are a specific for liver, skin, rheumatic, and bloofl 
disorders. 

The New Mexico Insane Asylum, a thoroughly modern and finely 



56 SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 

equipped hospital for the insane, is most beautifully situated on the Hot 

Springs Boulevard at the foot of the hills 

Ihe New Mexico Hos- about two miles northwest of Las Vegas. The 

pitalfotthe Insane^ original building of white stone, three stories 

high, was built in 1891 and contains 31 room? 
with three large glass enclosed sun rooms on the! end. This building is used 
exclusivel}^ for the offices of the superintendent and steward, drug and store 
rooms and sleeping apartments of the various employes of the institution. 

The first addition was built in 1899 of red brick and contains 35 beds 
to the floor or a total of 105 for this building. The rooms are large enough 
for a single iron bed, dresser and chair, with the exception of two dormitories 
on each floor of five beds each. 

The second addition was built in 1903 and has 59 beds to the floor or 
177 in this building also of red brick, with two dormitories of eight beds to 
the floor. The capacity of the institution without' crowding is about 20("t 
patients and at the present time it has 160 inmates. 

These buildings are all fitted with modern appliances, plumbing and 
heating, comforts for the sick and conveniences for the attendants in so fav 
as so young an institution with limited means is able. The cost of erectioii 
and improvements to date being about $160,000. This includes a modern 
power plant and a laundry well equipped with modern machinery. A reser- 
voir lined with cement, situated on the adjacent hill with a capacity of 5,000 
gallons of water which is pumped from a well on the premises about forty 
feet deep. Also a spiral fire escape, making it an easy matter to remove 
patients without dcViy shoiild occasioi? demand. The buildings are sur- 
rounded by 600 shade trees, map^^e, cottonwood, box elder, silver maple imd 
Carolina poplar. The silver maple having proved the most successful in 
growth for the length of tune since planting. In the summer the lawn is 
beautiful and carnations, sweet peas, dahlias and other flowers in abundance 
all summer long make it a most attractive place. The original amount of 
land owned by the institution was five acres, but the directors have added 
to this from time to time and now have 312 acres. One hundred and twenty- 
five acres are now under cultivation as a farm and garden. The remainder 
is used for pasture at the present time. Fifty acres of the 125 are in alfalfa, 
the rest is devotejd to the garden and orchard. The steward of the institu- 
iton, Mr. George W. Ward, with the aid of an assistant and those patients 
who are in a condition to work and desire 60 do so, has accomplished the 
ffdlowing results in the year 1907: 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 67 

From November Ist, 1906, to November Ist, 1907 — Farm and Garden Products at the 

Asylum. 

Wheat straw, 8 tons, per ton $8.00 Sheaf oats, 3^^ tons, per ton $13.00 

Alfalfa, 1271/^ tons, per ton 14.00 Wheat, 4,396 lbs, per 100 1.50 

Millet hay, 1^^ tons, per ton 13.00 Corn in ear, 35,799 lbs, per lb 01% 

Shocks fodder, 190, at per shock 25 Mexican beans, 2,236 lbs, per lb 04 

Garden. 

Rhubarb, 6,579 lbs, per lb 02 Cauliflower, 474 lbs, per lb 02V6 

Pumpkins, 23,680 lbs, per lb 02 String beans, 1,049 lbs, per lb 08 

Carrots, 26,227 lbs, per lb 02 Parsnips, 18,800 lbs, per lb 02 

Habas, 1,437 lbs, per lb 08 Lettuce, 586 lbs, per lb 04 

Onions, 2,627 lbs, per lb 02 Radishes, 396 lbs, per lb 03 

Turnips, 3,493 lbs, per lb 02 Greens, 25 lbs, per lb 04 

Beets, 21,805 lbs, per lb 02 Spinach, 16 lbs, per lb 05 

Garlic, 30 lbs, per lb 03 Parlsley, 10 lbs, per lb 08 

Peas in pod, 1,018 lbs, per lb 08 Cucumbers, 1,382 doz, per doz 25 

Kohlrabi, 1,650 lbs, per lb 02 Roasting ears, 342 doz, per doz 20 

Cabbage, 31,445 lbs, per lb 02 Celery, 490 doz bunches, per bunch .40 

, Dairy. 

Milk, 5,701 gals, per gal 20 Butter milk, 117 gals, per gal 30 

Home made butter, 278% lbs, per lb.. .35 

Chicken Ranch. 
Eggs, 297 doz, per doz , 35 Chickens, 275 lbs, per lb 18 



The vegetables grown are of a superior size and most excellent quality, 
while the celery is as fine as that grov;n anywhere — of the finest table variety 
limited only to the amount that one chooses to plant. 

A small orchard of 300 young trees, assorted apples, pears and plums 
yielded abundantly. 

Tlie following is that part of the work done by the dry farming 
methods, as a test, during the year : 

A piece of land abut 200 feet square yielded 1,685 pounds of corn and 21 
shocks of fodder. 

Four hundred and sixty-seven poimds of very fine potatoes from a por 
tion 200 feet by 37 feet. One hundred pounds of seed were sown. 

Sixty-five pounds of barley seed from land 72 feet by 66 leet; also 196 
pounds of barley straw. Ten pounds of seed planted. 

On a little over three acres were raised 1,467 pounds of Mexican beans 
of superior quality. Three and one-half acres produced 4,201 pounds ot 
wheat and seven tons of straw. 

All of this was grown on the farm of the asylum strictly by the dry farm- 
ing method, and there is no question in the mind of the steward that all the 



68 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



The City of 

Las Vegas By 

Chas, W. G. Ward 



land within thirty or forty miles of Las Vegas can be farmed successfully in 
this way. 

Las Vegas, The Meadow City, so named by the early Spanish settlers 
on account of the mesas which stretch green and beautiful as far the eye can 

carry in three directions from the city, is at once a 
unity and a trinity. Its component parts are a 
city. East Las Vegas, a town, Las Vegas, and a 
village. Upper Las Vegas. Both city and town 
are incorporated. Las Vegas, individually and collectively, prides herself 
upon her beautiful homes, her many churches, her fine schools, her excellent 
sidewalks, her modern utilities and a climate unequaled on the globe. 

Here is the Normal 
. University, a territorial in* 
stitution, housed in the 
handsomest school build- 
ing in the territory, built 
entirely of native stone. 
Here are the division 
headquarters of the Santa 
Fe Railway Company, 
here busy shops of the 
same company, employing 
always a considerable 
Birdseye View of L,as Vegas. number of men. Here is 

also one of the largest and most important wool markets in the west, and 
here a center for wholesale trade not equalled in New Mexico. 

Near the city are famous healing Hot Springs which had justly won 
their fame from savage Indian tribes ages before the fearless conquistido.- 
pursued his relentless march along the banks of the Gallinas. The magnifi- 
cent stone Montezuma hotel, the most splendid hostelry in the southwest, 
stands on an eminence near the springs. Follow the new Scenic highway, the 
finest mountain road in the United States, westward from the hotel and a 
wonderland of beauty and grandeur is entered. Towering mountains, dark 
canyons, green vallej'^s, silver lakes, verdant forests, burst in panoramic splen- 
dor on the view. No part of the west has a better right to be called the 
Switzerland of America than the region opened up by the broad highway 
that convicts from the territorial penitentiary with the skill of master builders 
are constructing across the mountains and through the valleys to Santa Fe, 
fifty miles away. Las Vegas is blessed as are few communities with beautiful 




SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 59 

mountain retreats and magnificent scenery almost at her doors. A brancn 
line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway leads for eight miles up 
the valley of the Gallinas and into the heart of the wonderland. 

Here are the nine lakes of the Agiia Pura Company, yielding an im- 
mense amount of a product not expected to be found in this land of warm and 
sunny winter days — natural ice. 

But the winter nights in this elevated canyon near Las Vegas are ex- 
tremely cold, and sheer southern walls rise so steeply above the stream that 
the slanting sun in all its course has scarce a chance to peep over the ramp- 
arts at the busy ice cutters or, perchance, it may be the merry skaters dis- 
porting themselves on the ice below. 

It is a fact that about 50,000 tons of pure crystal ice are taken from these 
lakes each winter. The astonishment of strangers who arrive or pass through 
Las Vegas on a sunny December day when wraps are a burden to see young 
people walking about with skates in their hands is frequently ludicrous. 

Las Vegas, with its long streets ot lovely homes and residences, its verd- 
ant lawns and nodding trees, is often called "the city of homes." Its homes 
are a source of pride, but the city has its substantial business advantages as 
well. East Las Vegas has two national banks, among the strongest in the 
southwest, also an mvestment company, which does a large business, and 
two first class building and loan associations. The town of Las Vegas has 
the Plaza Trust and Savings Bank, and a building and loan association. In 
both city and town are large and important .wholesale houses, doing an ex- 
tensive business throughout the territory. The retail stores are fully equal 
to the best western standards. A comparatively populous surrounding coun- 
try brings its trade to Las Vegas. - 

In addition to the fine Castaneda Hotel, Las Vegas has the following 
good hotels in addition to numerous smaller hostelries and rooming houses : 
The La Pension, Rawlins House, Eldorado, Albert and New Optic. As a 
result of the unparalleled climate sanitaria are numerous. The most import- 
ant are the Plaza Sanitarium in the town, St. Anthony's in the city, the 
beautiful Romero Ranch resort five miles south of the city and the Mesa 
ranch, two miles east. 

The national order of the Knights of Pythias, acting through the Grand 
Lodge of New Mexico, has just selected Las Vegas as the site for the estab- 
lishment of a sanitarium for members of the order afflicted with tubercu- 
losis. In addition to the sanitarium proper there will be built a thoroughly 
modern and well equipped hospital for surgical cases which will be available 
for the use of all the practicing physicians of the city. 



I 

o 



a 
o 
>> 
a 

o 








o 

a 



o 
O 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



61 



Ground has been furnished by the business men on which the buildings 
will be located and within the next twelve to fifteen months it is confidently 
expected that one of the largest and most firmly established sanitariums in 
the west will be in full operation. What this means to Las Vegas in spread- 
ing her fame abroad as a health resort par excellence, can hardly be esti- 
mated, much less measured. 

Las VcR-as is especially proud of fier educational facilities. There are two 
two-storv school buildings in the city and two in the town, in addition to the 
beautiful Normal building. About thirty teachers are employed in the public 
schools. A well organized high school with a corps of able teachers does 
excellent work. Teachers come from every county in the territory to attend 
the normal, a certificate from which is a license to teach in the schools of 
New Mexico. 

The Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists and Christ- 
ians have churches here, and there is also a Jewish temple. The citizens of 
Las Vegas are as enterprising, intelligent and lawabiding as can be found m 
any community. : 

One of the most important in- 
stitutions in the city is the Young 
Men's Christian Association. 
This organization has within the 
past two years completed and 
furnished at a cost of over 
$25,000 a handsome two-story 
and basement brick building im- 
mediately adioining the City 
Hall. Tbe building contains a 
large, thoroughly equipped gym 
nasium, plunge, reading room 
and sixteen bedrooms complete 
with baths and ev^ery conven- 
ience, where young men without homes in the city can live surrounded by 
the best and most uplifting influences. 

Las Vegas boasts of two clubs, each housed in quarters the equal of any 
in towns of similar size at any point in the west ; one of these the Commercial 
Club of Las Vegas, located in the city proper, occupying the second floor of 
the handsome Masonic Temple, is an organization of business men, primarily 
devoted to the upbuilding of Las Vegas, and working to the best interests 
of the city and county. But, in additfon to this, the social feature is not lost 



^^^- ■ ■ ' 1^ ■ k. >-- 









The Plunge, Y. M. C. A. 



62 SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 

sight of and many pleasant receptions, musicales, and other entertainments 
are given within its quarters. 

The club is always ready to take up any matters of public interest and 
concern, and full and complete information on any subject pertaining to the 
city is gladly furnished by the secretary, George A. Fleming. 

The other club, known as the Las Vegas Club, is situated on the Plaza in 
the town, where new and commodious quarters ha\je been fitted up. Thi.s 
organization is also interested in the promotion of the best interests of the 
community and its secretary, Mr. George H. Hunker, is also ready and will- 
ing to answer inquiries at any and all times. 

Las Vegas is supplied by the Agua Pura Company with an abundant 
supply of pure mountain water, the quality of which cannot be excelled. It 
is piped from far back in the mountafn recesses where the Rio Gallinas 

takes its rise. 

The electric street car and electric light system are under the control of 
one company which recently completed, at an exjiense of nearly $250,000, an 
clalKirate and mcKlern power plant, a cut of which is shown in the accompanv- 
ing pages, together with the overhauling of the entire electric light wiring and 
the roadbed and equipment of the strt.'^^t car system. Since the alterations 
and improvements have been completed it is confidently stated, that nowhere 
in a ccMumunitv of equal size, can be found a more up-to-date and efficient 
service in both of these modern utilities. 

There are many miles of first-class cement sidewalks. Grass grows 
abundantly Avith little attention, a fact which accounts for the many lawns of 
the citv. The streets are broad, tree-bordered and well kept. 

In addition to the Santa Fe shops, the community supports several wool- 
scouring mills, a brick plant, a marble-cutting and finishing works, roller 
mills, cement stone plant and other industries. , 

One of the industries most recently developed is that of the Canyon Lime 
Co., with quarries and kilns located at Hot Springs. In addition to 
supplying a high grade of lime to all portions of the territory, the company 
furnishes most of the lime rock used by the sugar factories of the Arkansas 
Valley in Colorado. Shipments of this rock amount to thousands of tons 
annually and the location of the quarries at this point is proving a prime 
incentive for the establishment of a beet sugar factory near Las Vegas. 

The Colorado Telephone Company has recently shown its faith in the 
future of Las Vegas by installing at fin expense of about $85,000 an abso^ 



SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 



63 



Ititely modern telephone system adapted to the needs of a city of 20,000. 
They have put in what is known as an all cable plant, the very latest method 
of approved telephone construction, and $15,000 was spent in a substantial 
modern building- upon one of the prominent corners. 

Las Vegas is the home of the Daily and Weekly Optic, newspapers 
founded twenty-six years ago. There are also three Spanish weeklies of gen- 
eral circulation. The Christian Brothers maintain a largely attended boys" 
school in the town of Las Vegas and the Sisters of Loretto conduct a well- 
equipped, girls' school. ^p»';f?i'vf^|**f •**;■■ 

Owing to the beneficial effect of the climate upon all forms of throat 
and lung diseases, hundreds of people come here seeking health. The cit)- 
has acquired a reputation from a climatic standpoint equalled by few places in 
the west. 





The Gymnasium, Y. M. C. A. 



The Lobby, Y. M. C. A. 



Malaria is absolutely unknown and never ha^,' a case of typhoid fever 
originated from the use of the water with which the community is supplied. 

With the certainty of a new railroad and with the impetus given to all 
forms of industry and business by the sale of the fertile lands of the Las 
Vegas grant, the city is bound to grow and prosper mightily. There has 
never been a boom growth in Las Vegas. The advancement has been steady 
and well founded. Many of the citizens have acquired wealth while poverty 
is practically unknown. With an ideal climate, all modern advantages, a fine 
class of citizens and excellent opportunities for business success, surrounded 
by a rich and beautiful country, this community looks forward to a bright 
future. 



64 SAN MIGUEL COUNTY. 

To refer once more to what is bound in time to prove one of the greatest 
resources in San Miguel county, the following quotation is taken from an 
address delivered before the Commercial Club of Las Vegas by a man prom- 
inent both in Colorado and New York City who had just completed an auto- 
mobile trip from the city over the Scenic highway in the canyon of the Galli- 
nas, thence over the foothills to San Ignacio, from there to Rociada, thence 
up the Sebolla Valley to Mora and returning by way of La Cueva : 

"I have never taken a trip anywhere that compared with this one. The 
boasted wonders of the Garden of the Gods are as nothing compared with 
it. If its beauties could be known throughout the east, thousands of peo- 
ple who at present pass through LasVegas on the palatial trains of the 
Santa Fe on their way to California and the Grand Canyon of the Colo- 
rado in Arizona, would stop off at Las Vegas and take this trip before com- 
pleting their journey. It is an asset which even the people of Las Vegas 
themselves do not yet fully appreciate,but the time will come when no lover 
of beautiful scenery who can avail himself of the opportunity will pass it by." 




Geo. A. Fleming, 

Secretary Commercial Club, 
Member Bureau of Immigration. 



